The members on the forum noticed a new release, so I’m just putting it out there that it’s available. Please feel free to provide comments on your upgrade experience, and anything new you may have discovered. Thanks!

Lowe’s is looking for some people to work in the US within the Iris Smart Home division. This seems interesting to me as they are looking for software engineers which I thought the development was only by a UK base company called Alertme.com.

So it seems if you have the first generation range extenders, then be expected to see one of this in the mail soon. Here is the letter in PDF format.

Also one of my commentators Scott had received his today too, and must of found out more about the new enhancements.

Scott:
“For those that have the range extender expect a free replacement from Lowes. The newer hardware is supposed to enhance the z-wave devices. It’s my understanding that any IRIS customer that currently owns a range extender will receive the free replacement. I received mine today.”

Found that State Farm has a site for home automation and monitoring systems. The site list out the comparison for ADT and Lowe’s Iris and offer a $25 discount for 2 of the starter kits. I test out the discount it does seem to work prior to checking out. Here’s the link if anybody is interested.

I need to credit reader fmollenkopf for his comment on 10/7/13 regarding the blind controller is from the company somfysystems.com. I wasn’t able to verify the video which he mention which is why I didn’t provide it on yesterdays post.

I was however able to verify that the information does show on the Bali website where you need to click on the tab for “Home automation” and you’ll notice the line that says “The new Z-Wave to Radio Technology Somfy® Interface (ZRTSI) enables motorized blinds and shades to be compatible with Z-wave based home automation systems“

The odd thing is that I wasn’t able to find this controller (ZRTSI) on the Somfy website, but I did find it at automatedshadestore.com where they state it’s a new product since 9/16/2013 and they even provided a PDF installation instructions from Somfy.

I’ve received a few interesting comments from readers since I last posted on 10/5. Thank you all for commenting I really appreciate them!

So instead of posting them individual and bombard people who sign up for email updates. I decided to just make one post which will list them out.

**From reader Scott**

Lowes released an infomercial promoting the Iris system. They asked me to be part of the customer testimonials so I said yes. There’s mention to a garage door monitor with remote opening/closing. Maybe with the release of the infomercial, they will finally get some of their ‘coming soon’ products on the shelves.